She had to have her camera ready.
She had to react before the dolphins disappeared.
And the shutter had to capture a fraction of a second in which the animals were all visible enough to create the extraordinary formation.
Blacklow herself emphasized the role of luck.
According to published accounts, she had seen dolphins around waves before, but photographing them could be difficult because they moved rapidly and could disappear out the back of a wave before she was ready.
On this morning, everything aligned.
The wave arrived.
The dolphins stayed visible.
The camera was ready.
And the photographer pressed the shutter.
Twelve Animals, One Fleeting Frame
One of the most interesting things about photography is its ability to transform a fraction of a second into something permanent.
The dolphins did not remain lined up.
The wave did not stop.
The ocean continued moving.
Within moments, the formation was gone.
But a photograph removes that single instant from the flow of time.
Now viewers can study something that Blacklow herself had only seconds to observe.
They can count the dolphins.
They can look at their spacing.
They can examine the wave.
They can wonder what the scene must have looked like immediately before and immediately after the shutter clicked.
That is why exceptional wildlife photographs sometimes feel almost impossible.
The human eye experiences an event continuously. A camera can isolate one instant that might have been nearly invisible within the speed of the original action.
A group of dolphins moving through waves may look chaotic in real time.
Freeze the right fraction of a second, however, and suddenly the movement can appear perfectly synchronized.
Social Lives Beneath the Surface
The image also offers an opportunity to appreciate how socially complex dolphins can be.
NOAA describes bottlenose dolphins as animals that may travel alone or in groups whose membership changes over time. Scientists sometimes refer to this flexible organization as a "fission-fusion" social system.
Researchers can study these relationships using photo-identification.
Individual dolphins often have recognizable marks or patterns, particularly around their dorsal fins. By photographing animals repeatedly over months or years, researchers can determine which dolphins regularly associate with one another.
NOAA Fisheries notes that this work has revealed strong relationships among some bottlenose dolphins. For example, some male bottlenose dolphins form long-lasting bonds with one or two other males and may continue traveling together for many years.
Such research reminds us that a pod seen from shore is not simply a collection of identical animals.
Each dolphin is an individual.
Each has its own history.
Some may be related.
Some may have long-standing social bonds.
Some may join or leave groups as circumstances change.
A photograph cannot reveal all those relationships, and it would be wrong to invent a detailed social story about the twelve dolphins at Manly without scientific observation.
But the image provides a visible reminder that beneath the surface, dolphins are participating in complicated social lives largely hidden from human observers.